Jared slapped a pair of open palms onto the doors leading into the school training area, nearly knocking them off the hinges.
"Of all the arrogant, shortsighted, thoughtless, boneheaded stunts…!"
He stormed into the room while muttering a few more choice words to describe his opinion of their day. Cyan and the other three filed into the room behind him and began to line up in the middle of the training ring. The ride back on the airship had been mostly quiet. The four of them sat at the front of the lounge, where a medic had determined that Lyohniy's injury wasn't severe, and that he should be fine after a day or two in a brace. Vermilion had spent the majority of the trip informing their Team Lead of the events that had transpired after they lost contact, as well as the everything that led up to their encounter. The spiky-haired Huntsman had listened quietly, occasionally nodding, and doing his best to hide his astonishment. Cyan couldn't quite overhear the conversations from the other students, but Roan apparently had very good ears. According to him, only one other group of students had been forced into a conflict, and they had barely managed to kill even one Beowolf, let alone three, plus one of the largest specimens of Ursa ever recorded in the area. The instructor stared at them, maintaining the same furious expression as when he had found them in the woods, but hadn't said a single word to them the entire trip.
Until now, of course.
The four of them stood there motionless while Jared paced angrily back and forth, "Seek, observe, and report: that was your objective! What were you thinking?"
Vermilion raised his chin and took a step forward, "I was the one in charge, sir. It was my decision to track the Beowolf instead of calling it in."
The instructor jabbed a finger in his direction, "And you think that gets the rest of them off the hook? You all knew your orders, and you should have objected. If that didn't work, you should have objected again! Strenuously!"
"It was one Beowolf, sir." Lyohniy said trying affect a fierce gaze, "It could have lead us to a whole pack. We thought it was worth the risk."
"That was not your call to make!" Jared shouted back, causing Lyohniy to seemingly shrink down about a centimeter in height. So much for bravado, Cyan thought. Though, to be fair, Jared was scary enough on normal days, and seemed to be in especially rare form today.
"When you make contact, you call it in." Jared repeated, "Once a Huntsman or Huntress is on site, they are the ones that decide if it's worthwhile to track the target. Going off mission like that..."
"Actually, we didn't."
Jared stopped in his tracks. The other three turned to stare at Cyan in wide-eyed stupefaction.
"...What?" Jared said with an unnervingly placid composure.
"We didn't go off mission, sir." Cyan repeated.
The instructor blinked, inclined his head to one side, and set both hands at his hips. Cyan took this as an invitation to continue.
"Not calling in the threat was a minor, but excusable, infraction. We didn't engage the enemy, we only pursued it. Which we would have had to do anyway if the Beowolf had kept moving like it did. And when it did detect us, we tried to flee, only using force as a last resort." she allowed a little smile to creep into her expression, "In other words, sir, self-defense."
Silence followed, and Cyan waited for the inevitable tirade that he went on every time she proved him wrong. Instead, he only shook his head.
And then began chuckling.
"...Sir?" Vermilion asked cautiously.
"That's almost exactly what the headmaster said to me after I told him what you'd gotten yourselves into today." Jared said with a slight scoff, "He said that you showed initiative, skill, and great resourcefulness. Never mind that rewarding this behavior would only encourage it..."
Jared trailed off and continued to shake his head. Cyan felt herself relax, and the four of them glanced at each other in surprise and a small measure of delight.
"...which is why I was happy to remind him that your grades for this are still determined by my evaluation!" he said, glaring back at them.
Whoops.
He rubbed at his forehead with the heel of one hand, seemingly having exhausted himself from lecturing them. He stared into space, sighed, and turned towards them again.
"Go home." he said, "Rest up. I'll be expecting you in class again on Monday."
Vermilion didn't give a Cyan a chance to say anything else. He touched her on the back of the arm and started walking for the exit. Lyohniy and Roan quickly followed, and they let the doors click shut behind them.
"Man," Lyohniy said after exhaling a deep breath, "I don't think I've ever seen him that mad."
Cyan shrugged and started walking down the hall, "I'd give that about a seven out of ten."
"It gets worse?" Lyohniy said, his eyes going wide.
Roan cocked an eyebrow at her, "You have a scale?"
Vermilion put a hand on her shoulder and spun her around, fixing her with a glare, "What are you thinking, antagonizing him like that?"
Cyan shrugged his hand off and stared back confidently, "I'm showing him that not everyone is just going roll over and fall in line when he starts shouting."
Then she turned and started walking again. Not knowing what else to say the other two began to follow her.
"Fall in line?" Vermilion repeated in disbelief, and quickened his pace to get beside her, "Didn't you learn anything from today?"
"Of course I did." she said, gesturing towards the group, "We all did. We learned what we're capable of when pushed to the limit."
"We almost died!" he said, glaring at her again.
Cyan rolled her eyes, "No we didn't."
Lyohniy looked at her as though she had just said that she could fly by waving her arms, "Uh, pretty sure we almost did. I can usually spot a Grimm that's about to rip me in half. They're large and angry. And I have good eyes."
She let out an exasperated sigh, "Think about it, V: did you call in our coordinates to the Team Lead?"
Vermilion gave her a measured look, "What's your point?"
"My point is, neither did I," she made a small shrug with both hands, "so how did Jared know just where to find us if we never called it in?"
The anger slowly started to fade from his features as he considered what she was saying. Lyohniy looked at her confused, and Roan's expression betrayed no emotion.
"It's because they never lost us." she explained, "They knew exactly where we were the whole time. I'm guessing there was some kind of tracker in the scroll. We were never in any real danger."
"If that's the case," Vermilion said, "then why all the prior warnings on the during the trip?"
Cyan looked back at him as if the answer should be obvious, "Because it was a test, remember? He even said so himself."
"She might be right." Roan said softly, as if unsure of the words even as he spoke them.
"Oh, not you too." Vermilion said, with a look that was equal parts surprise and dismay.
Roan could only shrug, "You can't experience real fear if you know it's only a test."
They exited the halls, passed by the fields, and quickly crossed the street away from campus, all eager to get home. Vermilion continued to argue with her the merits of their decision, long past the point when it became clear that neither one of them would budge. Lyohniy finally spoke up when the two of them paused long enough to take a breath.
"There's still one thing I don't get, Cyan." he said, "If you're right, then what was he so angry about back there?"
Cyan sighed in frustration, and made a dismissive wave with one hand, "Since when has ever needed a reason to be angry about something?"
Lyohniy reached for the front door, only for it to open out from in front of him. Mrs. Zee stood on the opposite side and immediately snatched him into a hug tight enough to make him wince.
"Thank goodness you're all safe!" she said, quickly ushering them inside, "I heard from the headmaster. What happened? Are you hurt?"
Lyohniy winced and managed to pull far enough away to speak, "No, mom, I'm fine. We're all fine."
She hugged him again so tightly that it almost looked as though he couldn't breath. Then she held him at arm's length with both her hands on his shoulders.
"Don't you ever do anything that foolish again! That goes for all of you, do you hear me?"
"Yes, ma'am." all of them said quickly.
Cyan caught Vermilion giving her another sour look, and she stared right back at him. With another sigh and a shake of his head, he broke off first, and began heading towards the dining room. The rest of the evening passed in a blur: a wonderful home-cooked meal, a long shower to wash away the results of several hours worth of running, jumping, and fighting for her life, followed by a few quiet minutes of reflection. She had planned on trying to get some more work done on her graduation project, but she was surprised by how exhausted she was. Her muscles ached, and every bone in her body begged her to lie down. Fine, she told her tired body, but only for a few minutes. She surprised herself again by dropping into a deep sleep almost immediately.
After she had finished breakfast the next morning, she went back upstairs to settle back into her work. The sunlight poured in from the upstairs window, and she blinked a few times until her eyes adjusted. The sky had cleared and the air smelled crisp and fresh. She drank it in with a deep breath that almost made her light-headed. Then she looked back down at her desk again, with her notes and figures, and the wooden chair which had never before looked so uninviting. Why not just take the day, a little voice in her head told her. It's not like this is going anywhere. After a few more moment's consideration, she grabbed her sketchpad from the desk and headed outside.
There was a pleasant breeze in the air that pushed a few strands of hair across her face. She caught them between her fingers and ran them back behind her head as she began to walk. The neighbors greeted her as she went past, and she politely waved back before turning towards an open field. Occasionally, she glanced towards the sky, becoming lost in it for many minutes at a time. Upon reaching a lone tree near the back of the property, she settled down, running her fingers through the grass, and gazing upon the view in front of her. She took a deep breath and let it out a relaxing sigh, then took out a pencil and began drawing.
"Hey, sis! There you are."
"Gah!" she sputtered in surprise as Vermilion suddenly materialized from the tree behind her. He smiled cheerfully, his shirt lightly stained with sweat, and his hair clinging to the back and sides of his head.
"What do you want?" she said, putting as much annoyance into her voice as she could.
"Nothing." he said, "I was just wondering if you were recovering okay from yesterday."
"From the battle with the Grimm, or from my dear brother's tongue-lashing?" she said, raising an eyebrow in his direction.
"Mm, both?"
She sighed, the annoyance draining from her face, "I'm fine. How about you and the others?"
He stretched his shoulders until they popped, "Actually, that's what I was coming to see you about."
Worry creased her brow, and Cyan stood up to look at him.
"I'm okay." he assured her, "Just got back from a run with Lyoh. No, it's about Roan."
"What about him?" she asked.
"I'm not sure." he confessed, "But I think he has something on his mind. He's been really quiet ever since we left the forest."
Cyan recalled the events of the previous day. Roan hadn't really said a word since they left the school. Now that she thought about it, he had seemed awfully distant, even for him.
"Did you ask him about it?"
"Well, no…" Vermilion rubbed the back of his neck, "I mentioned it to Lyoh, and we both agreed that you should be the one to talk to him."
Her jaw dropped open, "What? Why me?"
"Because you have such refined people skills." he grinned.
"Wh—you—, no I don't!" she stammered.
"No?" he said, still smiling, "Then this will be a good opportunity to develop some. Just think of it as training."
"Training?!" she almost shouted.
"Hey, guys." he said, waving at someone over her shoulder.
Cyan spun around to see Lyohniy approaching them them from the direction of the house, with Roan following closely behind. She could also see now what Vermilion had been talking about. His eyes were alert, but unfocused. It looked as if he were a thousand miles away.
"Morning." she said, affecting the friendliest smile she could manage, and hoping that she didn't sound too suspicious.
Lyohniy gave her a little wave and smiled back. Roan offered a polite nod, but maintained a neutral expression.
"Lyohniy mentioned that you needed help with something?" he said.
"Oh, that." Vermilion glanced downward, "Cyan was able to help me work it out. I'm sorry to have bothered you."
"Ah." he said, looking even more distant than before, "That's all right. It was no bother."
They stood around for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
"Well then." Roan gave another polite nod, and started back in the direction of the house. Vermilion leaned forward and began whispering in his sister's ear.
"He's leaving."
"I see that." she snarled quietly.
"So say something."
"Like what?!"
"Improvise!"
"Roan!"
He stopped at the sound of his name and turned to face her, wearing a curious expression on his features.
"I... that is, I was," she fumbled over her words, and then reached for the first thing that came to her mind, "...going to head into town later and see if I could pick up a few things. You know, for my graduation project. Do you want to come with?"
"Certainly." he said.
Huh… that was easy, she thought.
"What time?" he asked.
"Oh, well..." she turned around to see that her brother had, at some point, carefully slipped her sketchbook from her grasp.
"I can put this back for you. I promise not to disturb the mess this time." he said with a wink.
She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "Right now... apparently."
He gave her another simple nod as his reply, and stepped to the side. When she walked forward he fell into even step beside her. She was able to steal another look over her shoulder to see Vermilion wearing a broad grin, nodding his head, and giving her a "two thumbs up" sign. She scowled at him once more, then quickened her pace.
They walked in relative silence until the tree-lined fields gave way to paved rounds and the familiar buzz of traffic. Cyan occasionally glanced in Roan's direction to find him rather intently studying his surroundings. It was a rather unusual habit of his, always appearing to be on alert for danger. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume he really was expecting some kind of trouble, but after observing how he carried himself during an actual life-or-death situation yesterday, there were certain cues she was looking for that were currently not present.
"So," she said, "nice day out today.", and almost immediately winced in regret.
"Mm", Roan nodded in reply.
Brilliant, the voice in head told her.
"What did you need to pick up?" he asked, once again somehow managing to not look directly at her.
"Oh, right." she said, suddenly remembering the excuse she had used to bring him out here, "I've hit another wall with my project. I know the design is sound, but I just can't make the energy calculations work. I want to try out a new Dust mixture to see if that makes a difference."
A sudden thought occurred to her, and she looked up at him. "Are you having any trouble choosing a project?"
"No." he replied, "I found something suitable during my orientation."
Cyan felt her head droop, "It was that easy, huh?"
"After a small self-assessment," he said, "examining my current limits, potential areas for growth, and considering personal strengths and weaknesses, the choice comes as naturally as..."
His voice trailed off when he glanced down to see her becoming more dejected with each word he spoke. He quietly cleared his throat and shut himself up.
"Wouldn't it be simpler to choose from the current schematics, rather than attempting to design and build something from scratch?" he asked.
Cyan shrugged and said, "Sure, but then it wouldn't be mine. Besides, Dad always used to say that anything worth doing is difficult."
The memory brought a little smile to her features, and she allowed herself to enjoy the sensation of happiness that came with it. A sign hanging from an awning just ahead of her drew her attention away from her thoughts.
"Here we are." she said, and pointed towards the door.
They approached the corner shop and Cyan suddenly became aware of a number of passersby who were slowing down and staring in her direction. She felt herself start to blush, until she noticed that they weren't looking at her, but rather at Roan. One or two of them put a hand over their mouths and began to lean towards whomever it was they were walking with, ostensibly to whisper something to them that wouldn't be overheard by anyone nearby. When she glanced in Roan's direction again, she saw one of his ears twitch and a small line form at the corner of his mouth. Slowly he reached backward and pulled the hood from his sweatshirt over his head, his distinctive Faunus ears disappearing beneath the fabric. Then Cyan began to get angry, and turned her glare towards one group of onlookers in particular, all of whom quickly averted their gaze and moved on their way. Her irritation didn't go with them, and she began to wonder why people insisted on being so ignorant. Roan reached the door first, and held it open for her. She smiled to him and headed inside.
The store sprawled out before them, much larger on the inside than the humble street entrance would suggest. The walls were lined with several dark tubes that were filled with highly refined Dust in powdered form, each one emanating it's own distinct glow, and carefully labeled with signs that clearly identified the composition and contents with additional warnings to ask for assistance before touching it. Spiral staircases evenly spaced along the sides of the room led upwards to an interior balcony floor, which contained a small lounge along with shelves lined with books and periodicals containing much of the currently known information on the history of Dust and its myriad of uses. The center of the first floor had a number of glass display cases, which contained row after row of Dust crystals, some natural, but most with a wide variety of faceted cuts. A pleasant looking elderly man in a simple brown apron smiled at them and offered his assistance as they approached.
"Hi," Cyan said, "We're both students at Herald. I was hoping to get some supplies for my graduation project." she produced a small, plastic school identification card with her name and picture on it and handed it to the clerk, and indicated to Roan to do the same, "Do you have a mixing station I could use?"
The man peered closely at both cards, then nodded with a smile and directed her to an area on the lower floor towards the back of the shop, telling her to ask if she needed help with anything. She thanked the shopkeeper and moved through the rows of bookshelves. Roan's eyebrows lifted when he noted the prices posted around the store.
"How are you able to afford any of this?" he asked.
"Oh, I can't." she explained, "The school has a portion of the budget set aside for each student to cover expenses. They want to encourage creativity, supposedly. Once we become full-fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses, we'll be responsible for our own supplies, and I guess they want us to get used to the process now."
"But where does the school get the money from?"
Cyan thought about it for a moment, then said, "I'm not really sure. Government grants, maybe. What we do is a public service, after all."
Roan considered this with a nod, and Cyan turned her attention towards the enormous monitor in front of her. She inserted her school I.D., and the display flickered to life with a welcome message, which she dismissed with a single press of the touch screen. After navigating a few menus, she was greeted with four three-dimensional models, each depicting the molecular composition of a particular Dust element. She touched another control that reopened a data file, and another fiendishly complicated model that she had been working on for the last two days was displayed in the center of the screen. She manipulated the screen with both hands, bringing some of the images together, which would combine into new patterns of varying levels of complexity. Roan quietly observed the process with fascination.
"What are you doing?" he said.
Cyan touched the fingertips of both hands to one of the images and spread her hands apart apart to enlarge it, "Trying to come up with a formula that will power the design I'm working on. You know about the four basic Dust elements, right?"
Roan nodded, "Fire, water, earth, and wind."
Cyan pointed to one of the models, "Each of them has their own unique energy, and they react differently when combined together. You can adjust the type and intensity of the reaction through the different combinations."
He continued to nod along silently, causing Cyan to briefly wonder if he was even following what she was saying.
"It looks like there are a lot of other factors to consider." he said, pointing to a list of figures streaming down the right-hand side of the display, "Density, reaction speed, molecular stability. The inherent steric effects in each new compound also need to be considered, if they will necessitate more complex methods of synthesis in order for further polymerization to occur."
Cyan blinked in surprise, "That's right. In the right environment, you can create compounds that would never occur naturally. But if the reaction is too unstable, the compound will break down immediately after synthesis, or burn itself out before you can channel the energy into anything meaningful." she smiled up at him, "You catch on pretty fast."
He looked back at her, his otherwise neutral demeanor breaking into a faint smile of his own. They worked at the station for nearly an hour. Actually, Cyan did most of the work, while Roan watched and occasionally pointed out potential problems as he spotted them. She had gotten so caught up in the work, that she had nearly forgotten the real reason she asked him here in the first place. He didn't seem to mind, though his expression was extraordinarily difficult to read. At last, they were left with two differently sized models. Cyan took a deep breath in anticipation and slowly touched a finger to the screen, dragging the smaller compound into the larger one. The two models flickered and combined into one composite structure, and the monitor ran several automated calculations which resulted in a series pleasant beeping tones.
Her features lit up in a smile, then she looked over at Roan. His eyes were trained on the display, and it took a moment for him to notice she was looking at him, after which he returned her smile with one of his own. She had to make an effort to keep up her own expression when she caught sight of a group of four people coming down the stairs from the second floor. The one in the back noticed her almost immediately and directed the group in their direction.
She hastily touched another control that ejected a small printout of their work on sheet of paper, and held it out to Roan, "Could you give this to the shopkeeper and ask how long it would take to work up about three kilograms? I want to run a few more tests."
"Sure." Roan took the slip of paper and headed towards the front of the shop. Cyan turned back around and pretended to operate the touch screen again, watching the approaching group out of the corner of her eye. The four of them exited the staircase on the bottom floor, and their most direct path towards her took them in the opposite direction Roan had gone, reaching her just as he had gotten out of sight. As they approached, she swiped a hand across the screen to clear the images and snatched her I.D. out of the console. She then turned around and started to walk away, stopping short as though she had just become aware of their presence.
"Cyan, fancy running into you here."
She let out a great sigh and glanced up at the boy in front, "What do you want, Jet?"
He directed that cocky, smug grin of his down towards her. The faint scent of flowers reached Cyan's nose, and she flicked her gaze to Autumn who was standing on his left. Standing next to her was another girl with platinum blonde hair done up in a crown braid, and a blue-white long-sleeve shirt and dress. She watched Cyan with the eyes of a hawk about to swoop down on its prey. On Jet's right stood a positively enormous boy with short, spiky hair the color of sand. He bulged with muscle underneath a simple tan shirt and cargo pants. She didn't recognize either one of them.
Jet took note of her eyeing the two of them and said, "Ah, how rude of me." he then gestured towards the girl, "Cyan, this is Eira," and next directed his hand towards the boy, "and Dune. We met on the transport during the field trip, and agreed to partner up for the mission."
Eira regarded her with roughly the amount of interest as she might an insect that she had just accidentally stepped on. Dune kept his arms folded in front of him, and puffed out his chest, clearly attempting to make himself look as imposing as he could. Cyan stared upwards at Dune for a long while. He stared right back without so much as a twitch.
"What?" he said at last, in a gruff baritone.
"Sorry," Cyan said, "I was just thinking that this is an odd place for the architect to put a wall."
Dune blinked and flicked his gaze back and forth between her and the other three in confusion, "Huh?"
"Load-bearing, too, I see." she added with a smirk.
It seemed to register on some level that he was being insulted, even though his face was devoid of comprehension. He leered over her and said, "You wanna stand on a chair and say that to my face?"
Cyan couldn't stop a grin from spreading across her face, and fought to contain her laughter, "Oh, wow. Jet, he is just precious. Is he house-trained too?"
Dune snarled, unfolded his arms, and took a step towards her.
"Please, Dune. Let's be civil." Jet said, placing a pacifying hand on his shoulder. The larger boy scoffed, but backed down. Jet then turned back towards Cyan, produced a scroll from his coat pocket and said, "I didn't get the chance to congratulate you on your performance yesterday. You really made quite an impression."
"I don't do autographs." she said.
Jet glanced down at the scroll and grinned, "Oh, this? No, no, this is just something I wanted to share with you. The field report and student evaluations submitted by Instructor Jared."
This time Cyan did laugh out loud, "Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"
He smirked, and a devilish grin spread across Autumn's face as she said, "You'd be surprised what the headmaster leaves behind after a dinner party when your family makes as many donations to the school as Jet's does."
Suddenly, the idea didn't seem so ridiculous anymore. Cyan fixed Autumn with a level gaze as Jet slowly, almost casually, touched the unlock button and turned on the display. He swiped a finger downward, scrolling through several long blocks of text looking extremely pleased with himself, "Let's see now... ah, here we are: 'Zee Lyohniy. Excellent martial abilities. Headstrong, lacks initiative, senseless risk-taker', and, oh my, 'academically challenged.' Well, that's rather generous."
The four of them shared a round of quiet laughter. Cyan could feel the anger starting to build from deep inside of her, but she said nothing, instead continuing to stare up at Jet as laughed his sickening laugh and scrolled further through the text.
"Oh yes, Shikari, Roan." he said, "This one was most interesting: 'Shows great physical prowess, impressive knowledge and skills for someone his age, but displays instincts and reflexes unbecoming a Huntsman. Given the choice, he will flee and hide from the threats he should be meeting head on.'"
She felt her heart sink at the words he read. It wasn't so much the words he was saying as it was knowing in her gut that he was telling truth. Worst of all, she surmised, was that this wasn't the first evaluation Jet had gleaned from the faculty. He knew about this all along. This is what he had meant by what he said back on the airship.
"And, Athelward, Vermilion. So disappointing."
Cyan's eyes widened, and she fought to keep her expression neutral. No matter what he said, she would not give him the satisfaction of...
Jet took an especial delight in reading the next entry out loud, "Immense potential, acquires new skills at an astonishing rate, but constantly holds himself back. Cares more for his younger sibling's success than his own. "
Cyan felt her breath quicken, and the anger that had been festering inside her began to boil over.
"Shut up." she said through bared teeth.
Jet thumbed the screen and scrolled through the text again, "Would you like to hear yours next?"
"I said, shut up!"
She lunged at the scroll, but Jet only laughed and deftly spun on his heel, lifting it away from her incoming hand. She then felt someone grab her by the collar and drag her backwards. Dune's huge meaty fist wrapped around her shirt and he pulled her about a centimeter away from his face.
"Really, now. Stop embarrassing yourself." Jet said through his laughter.
"Yeah." Dune said with a sneer, "We're tryin' to be civil here."
Cyan glowered back at him, her eyes narrowing on his, "You're going to want to let me go. Now."
"Ha!" he let out a boisterous laugh, "Am I s'posed to be intimidated? 'Cause I sure don't feel intimidated."
Instead of responding with words, she flicked her gaze to a spot just over his shoulder. Before Dune had a chance to react, Roan suddenly appeared out of nowhere right beside them, swung his hand upwards, and knocked Dune's grip loose. Before anyone could even speak, he vanished and reappeared directly behind the larger boy and grabbed his now flailing arm at the wrist, twisted it backwards and pinned it behind his back. In the same motion, he thrust a heel into the back of Dune's right knee, knocking it out from under him, and wrapped the fingers of his other hand around his throat. His yelp of surprise came out as a strangled gasp.
Cyan stood up straight, and smoothed the creases out of her shirt, "Give it a moment. It'll set in."
Dune grabbed at his neck, trying to pry Roan's fingers away, but this only made him tighten his grip further.
"Get... off," he choked the words out as best he could, "...get him off!"
Both Autumn and Eira shifted forward as though they were about to intervene. Roan spun his head sharply to glare at them. At some point during the assault his hood had fallen down, and Cyan could clearly see his gray eyes flashing an unspoken threat.
"Really, now. Stop embarrassing yourself." she said smugly.
Jet curled his lip, closed the scroll, and put it away, "Alright, I do believe you've made your point. If you please...?"
"Why, certainly." Cyan said in a tone of mocking civility, "Roan?" she paused until he met her gaze, "Break his arm."
Dune's eyes widened in sudden apprehension, and he tensed as though he really expected him to do it. For just a moment, so did Cyan. Roan quirked an eyebrow towards her, and she did her best to convey the sarcasm in her words. He then directed one last snarl at Dune as he released him, twisting his arm just enough to push him off balance as he moved away. He glided next to Cyan, while Dune managed to get back up to one knee and struggled to breath through his bruised throat.
"Let me make this clear." Cyan spoke slowly and held a vicious edge to her voice, "Stay away from my brother. And stay away from me. If you bother any of us again, no amount of 'donations' will be able to help you."
The usual pomp and conceit had vanished from Jet's features, and he regarded Cyan with a hard steely-eyed stare, but remained silent.
"Let's go." she said to Roan, without taking her eyes off of Jet.
Cyan walked forward between Jet and Autumn, both of whom shifted just enough to allow her through. Roan followed right on her heels, watching all of them carefully for any signs of movement. No one budged until the two of them made it out the front door. Cyan stopped just outside the door to exhale her held breath, and felt herself starting to tremble as her survival instincts set in.
"Are they moving yet?" she said, continuing to stare straight ahead.
Roan looked at her, then turned his head to look in the window, "...Yes." he said cautiously.
"OK." Cyan gave a single slow nod, "Run."
"What?"
She spun on her heel and took off down the street. After a moment's hesitation, Roan followed her. They didn't stop until they were several blocks away. They both leaned up against the side of a nearby building and panted heavily. Cyan looked up at Roan, who looked back at her in confusion. She shook her head and started laughing in a spontaneous release of nervous tension. He watched her, but remained silent until her laughter subsided.
"The shopkeeper said that he can place your order today, and have it ready for you by Monday afternoon." Roan said.
Cyan raised an eyebrow, tilted her head to one side, and couldn't help herself from laughing again. This only served to compound his confusion. She patted him on the shoulder and started in the direction of home.
"So tell me something." she said Roan after a few minutes of silence, "What Jet read from that evaluation, is it true?"
Roan didn't look at her. If he was at all surprised by the fact that she was aware he had overheard the conversation, it didn't show.
"Instructor Jared seems to think so." he replied solemnly.
"Uh huh." Cyan gave him a knowing nod, "Well I suppose you would know, if you're as big on self-assessments as you seem to be."
She continued watching him out of the corner of her eye, and saw his gaze drift towards the ground.
"I thought so." she said, "Is that what's been bothering you?"
Roan sighed deeply, and stared off into the distance as he responded, "Ever since I was young, I was taught that running and hiding is the only way to survive. After so many years, I'm afraid that it's all I know. For a while, I thought perhaps I could fit in at your school, but now I think that Instructor Jared might be right."
"...What a load of crap."
Roan turned his far-off stare towards her.
"You didn't run and hide in the shop just now." Cyan said, "You might have run in the forest, but you sure didn't hide. When it came down to it, you fought to save us."
His normally carefully guarded expression vanished as he screwed up his face in thought, "But… that was different. We… I mean, you all are…"
Cyan started to get it.
"Living outside the kingdoms, you must have lost a lot of people you were close to, right?"
A look of pain and regret crossed his features as he nodded.
"If there was anything at all you could have done to save them, would you have done it?" she asked.
"Of course I would."
"Well now you have the chance." she said, "Don't think about you. Think about the people you could have saved. And the people you will save."
They walked in silence for a long time as he considered what she had said. Gradually, the far-off stare faded from his eyes, and they were slowly filled with a renewed sense of purpose.
"I understand." he turned and smiled at her, "Thank you, Cyan."
She felt herself blush a little bit and nodded, "I should be thanking you. For the save and the formula." her lips turned up in a confident smirk, "Just wait. The next time Jared is looking over our shoulder on a mission, we'll really give him a show worth watching."
Roan unexpectedly slowed his pace. Cyan glanced up and saw a strange expression on his features. It was as though he wanted to tell her something, but wasn't quite sure how to do it.
"Cyan." he said, his voice growing quiet, "The instructor was not watching us."
Confusion blanketed her features, "What are you talking about?"
Roan continued, "As Jet opened the scroll, I could see the beginning of the field report. The instructor wrote that he didn't leave the airship until after our transmission was cut off, at which point he tracked us, alone."
"That's ridiculous!" she said, "How could he have possibly found us if he didn't already know where to look?"
"Apparently, that's what makes him special." Roan said, "His Semblance allows him to locate the aura of anyone he has come into physical contact with."
"Contact? What do you—"
Her thoughts suddenly whirled backwards to her first day of after school drills. She had closed her eyes to concentrate, and Jared had helped calm her… by resting both of his hands on her shoulders.
A cold, sick feeling began to grow in the pit of her stomach. She felt her breath become so shallow that it almost made her dizzy to stand. Before now, the prospect of death had never seemed real to her. Somehow, she thought that all of the Grimm attacks would miss, and the fury of teeth and claws would all sail right past her. But just like that, it was now real.
And it frightened her.
A thousand questions raced through her thoughts all at once, and none of the answers she could come up with made any sense. She felt herself begin to curl the fingers of her hand into a fist.
"Cyan?" Roan said, a pang of worry in his voice.
Her mind drifted out of her thoughts, and she looked down to see that was clenching her hand so tightly it had begun to tremble. She relaxed it, working the sensation of numbness out of her fingers.
"It's nothing." she said, and smiled up at him, "Let's go home."
He returned her smile with one of his own, and another simple nod.
Cyan insisted on leaving much earlier than usual the following Monday. While they were not the first students to arrive at campus, they got there with nearly half an hour before the first class would begin. After telling the others that she would catch up with them in a little while, she began to make her way through the empty halls. At first she considered asking another member of the faculty for assistance, but after giving it some thought, she realized there was only one place he would be…
As she approached the doors to the training room, she could hear the familiar sounds of inside. The sounds of someone rapidly shuffling across the training mat, and the grunts of exertion reached her ears. She paused, and pushed open the door to find Jared twirling one of the heavy wooden polearms overhead in the midst of a warm-up exercise. He slapped the end of the staff down on the mat with a heavy thud that echoed throughout the room. His movements abruptly stopped when he caught sight of her in the doorway.
"Well, this is a surprise." Jared said, still panting, "I didn't think you got up this early."
Cyan stared at him, unable to say anything. She had spent nearly an hour the day before working out precisely what she wanted to tell him in her head, but now that she was here in front of him, she hesitated. The righteous anger she had worked up was draining away, and she couldn't understand why.
"I…" she began, then just as quickly stopped.
A look of concern came across his face, "What is it?"
She set her eyes in a scowl and nodded to herself, then said, "That pack of Beowolves in the forest, when you found us. You vanquished them all like they were nothing."
He stared through her, trying to see through her line of reasoning, "I might be just an instructor here, but I am still Huntsman. No matter how many years might pass, that training never goes away."
"So then all this time, during training, you were holding back." she said, looking away, "I never really had a chance."
"A chance at what?" Jared said, "Of winning? In a fair duel? Of course not."
She found her anger again, and glared up at him, "Why? Our enemies won't go easy on us in the real world! So why hold back in here?"
He seemed genuinely surprised by this, "Maybe so you'll live to actually see the real world?"
As much as it frustrated her, she didn't have an answer for that. Cyan paused and turned away, taking a short breath to collect her thoughts.
"Then tell me this." she said, mustering all the indignation she could, "No one at this school cares about being here more than I do. Maybe I pick it up more quickly, but I still practice and train as much as any of them."
She stepped towards the ring, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction, "But you've been on my case since the first day I came here! Why?!"
The hard glare that she had grown so accustomed to suddenly vanished from his features, being replaced by something that she could almost mistake for affection.
"The truth is I knew you were different the first time I looked into your eyes." he said, returning her stern gaze with his own, "It was like looking in a mirror. You're special, Cyan."
Her mind went blank and her mouth fell almost to the floor. Despite her best efforts, the torrent of emotions she had worked up inside of her began to dissolve.
"Then why are you so hard on me?".
"Because one day you're going to become a great Huntress." Jared walked forward, and gently rested a huge hand on her shoulder, "But the only way that's going to happen is if you have every drill down better than everyone else. At the academy, there's no room for mistakes. Understand?"
She did understand, and felt a single tear begin to well up in her eye. She nodded, but couldn't bring herself to look at him. Jared seemed to sense this, and gave her a gentle reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before turning to walk away.
"You should get to class now. The first lectures will be starting soon."
She nodded again, and headed in the other direction.
"Sir…?" she said, pausing at the open door.
Jared stopped and faced her again, waiting for her to continue.
"Would it be alright if I stay after class today? There are some techniques that I was wondering if you could help me with."
For the first time since she had known him, Jared smiled.
"Of course."
A tiny sensation of joy surged through her, and she found herself bringing a hand to the corner of her eye again, "Thank you, sir."
Then she let the door close behind her and hurried down the hall.
